Explore the world of Mac. Check out MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac mini, and more. Visit the Apple site to learn, buy, and get support. Shop for Mac OS All Laptops at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up.
You may have been led to believe that you don't have to worry about computer viruses on your Mac. And, to some extent, there's truth to that. While your Mac can definitely be infected with malware, Apple's built-in malware detection and file quarantine capabilities are meant to make it less likely that you'll download and run malicious software.
Apple introduced malware detection to the Mac OS with Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6). This system consists of the quarantine of any app downloaded from the Internet, the use of Code Signing certificates to verify that an app is coming from a legit source, and regular security updates that include databases of known malware targeting the Mac OS.
Because of this system, called File Quarantine and occasionally referred to as XProtect:
Apps in quarantine display a dialog window reminding you where the app came from and asking whether or not you're sure you want to open it.
Can you download fortnite on a hp laptop. Apps with no code signing certificate, depending on your Gatekeeper settings, may display a message saying the app can't be opened because of your settings. (For software you know is good you can bypass this by control-clicking the app and selecting Open from the resulting contextual menu.)
Apps that are known malware cannot be opened at all. You'll be met with a message offering the option to toss the app in the trash.
And this is why Macs remain mostly virus and malware free.
To make sure your Mac malware database is always up to date you'll want to verify that your Mac always automatically installs security updates and related system data files.
To do this:
- Open System Preferences
- Open the App Store preference
- Make sure that Automatically check for updates and Install system data files and security updates are checked.
This should keep your Mac free from most malicious software, although it's important to note that it does not make it impossible for malicious software to be installed on your Mac. There is no software that's able to catch everything. If new malware is released today and you download and run it today you will have done so before Apple's databases could have been updated. So it's always best to be wise when downloading software from unknown sources.
While it's unlikely that your Mac will run any malware, there is possibly a more pernicious issue: You Mac could become the Typhoid Mary of Windows viruses, which is to say, you could be harboring viruses on your Mac that won't effect you, but can be problems for Windows users.
Think I'm joking? Have a look at this screenshot, taken from my Mac during the course of writing this column:
That, my friends, is a list of 30 potentially bad things that…you guessed it, were found on my Mac while I was running a test virus scan, one of which is a Windows virus. And, nope, I did not plan this, even though I did plan to write about this problem.
So, how do you keep your Mac from relaying Windows viruses to Windows users?
ClamXav.
Why ClamXav? Because it has one job and it does it very well. It's not too intrusive. It doesn't try to do too much. If you're using Apple's Server app to host your email, it's what Apple uses to scan incoming mail for viruses.
ClamXav is, like AdWare Medic, donationware and it is fantastic. You'll find it at the Mac App Store or you can download it directly from the ClamXav Website, where you can also make a donation.
Once you've downloaded and opened the app you'll want to set the app's preferences, as the default behavior is to scan for viruses but not delete or quarantine them. ClamXav offers five configuration options:
- General: For setting up alerts and whether or not to scan for malware and phishing in your email messages (which is where the app found infected files on my Mac)
- Quarantine: For defining where you want to quarantine malicious files
- Exclude Files: To specify file types you don't want scanned
- Log Files: For setting whether or not you want log files stored and for viewing them
- Schedule: For defining when you want the latest virus definitions downloaded and when you want scheduled scans to take place
Once you've finished your setup, click the Start Scan button and go grab some milk and cookies. Scanning may take awhile, but when it's done you'll know for sure your Mac is clean.
When working with Leopard on laptops, make sure to consider the realities of older units with less space and/or small solid state drives. Leopard typically clocks in at over 8GB for a typical install. That leaves very little space on an old 20GB hard drive (vintage TiBook, anyone?, although all things are possible to those who believe) or a 16GB (or even 64GB) solid state drive for your personal data and media.
Going portable can mean going small. And Leopard, with its standard packages, is anything but that. So how are you supposed to deal with its masses of data, support files and bloated applications? Fortunately, you are not alone. The question of Leopard size, and Tiger before it, has been well explored with a number of excellent tools that will help you bring your overgrown installation under control.
Here are five ways you can slim down your Mac OS X install and make the most of the disk space on offer. There's lots of stuff in your install that you don't need, don't want, and will never use. A thoughtfully slimmed-down OS X discards those unneeded elements and leaves you more room for the items you do want.
Tossing your apps
Although Leopard ships with many fabulous applications, there are bound to be some that you simply don't want. If you don't use Chess or Photo Booth or Stickies for example, consider deleting them. That's not to say that you should delete applications you do use occasionally. Microsoft edge 79 0 309 155. You'll be kicking yourself hard if you toss System Profiler or Disk Utility and then have to use them at some point. Consider how you use your laptop and the tools you need; this will help guide your choices.
As a rule of thumb, when you have a desktop system at home or the office that you regularly network to in addition to your laptop, you can take more risks when deleting apps. Your backups are right there whenever you need them. Be aware, though, that most Applications involve more than an executable in your Applications folder.
Utilities like AppZapper and AppCleaner clean out an application's associated files and folders, as well as the app itself. Extra items may include Application Support folders, preferences files or panes, caches and more. App cleaners produces leaner Mac OS X installs by thoroughly deleting applications and support files; at the same time consider that a full uninstall may complicate reinstallation should you need to ever use those applications again.
AdvertisementRemove languages and PowerPC code
Localizations allow you to use your applications in many languages; you control your language choice through the System Preferences International settings pane. Your menus, buttons, and dialogs all adjust to the language of choice, be it English or Italian, Japanese or French. Unfortunately, all this language support takes up a lot of space on your disk. https://php-software.mystrikingly.com/blog/skyhook-itch-dotrandom-mac-os. There are tools out there that recover that space by removing language support that you won't use.
In addition to languages, another OS element that takes up space on your disk is Power PC support. Inside each of those universal binaries, there's PowerPC code that you will never use on an Intel machine. XSlimmer, Monolingual, and Trimmit allow you to remove both foreign language support and nonnative code at the same time. These tools greatly compress your Application folder, sometimes by as much as a gigabyte.
The cost to this choice is that it locks you in to a language. That may not be a huge deal if you work exclusively in English. Europeans who work with many languages may find themselves better served by skipping language extraction or carefully choosing which languages to delete from their system. Update: Language removal can also mess up Office 2008 updates and, I'm told, Adobe apps.
Weed through printer drivers, screen savers, and more
Large tracts of Mac OS X disk space are devoted to support files that, frankly, you'll never use. As a general purpose operating system, OS X offers many more choices than most people need or want. You can fight the bloat by cleaning out support areas that do not affect you.
To make sure your Mac malware database is always up to date you'll want to verify that your Mac always automatically installs security updates and related system data files.
To do this:
- Open System Preferences
- Open the App Store preference
- Make sure that Automatically check for updates and Install system data files and security updates are checked.
This should keep your Mac free from most malicious software, although it's important to note that it does not make it impossible for malicious software to be installed on your Mac. There is no software that's able to catch everything. If new malware is released today and you download and run it today you will have done so before Apple's databases could have been updated. So it's always best to be wise when downloading software from unknown sources.
While it's unlikely that your Mac will run any malware, there is possibly a more pernicious issue: You Mac could become the Typhoid Mary of Windows viruses, which is to say, you could be harboring viruses on your Mac that won't effect you, but can be problems for Windows users.
Think I'm joking? Have a look at this screenshot, taken from my Mac during the course of writing this column:
That, my friends, is a list of 30 potentially bad things that…you guessed it, were found on my Mac while I was running a test virus scan, one of which is a Windows virus. And, nope, I did not plan this, even though I did plan to write about this problem.
So, how do you keep your Mac from relaying Windows viruses to Windows users?
ClamXav.
Why ClamXav? Because it has one job and it does it very well. It's not too intrusive. It doesn't try to do too much. If you're using Apple's Server app to host your email, it's what Apple uses to scan incoming mail for viruses.
ClamXav is, like AdWare Medic, donationware and it is fantastic. You'll find it at the Mac App Store or you can download it directly from the ClamXav Website, where you can also make a donation.
Once you've downloaded and opened the app you'll want to set the app's preferences, as the default behavior is to scan for viruses but not delete or quarantine them. ClamXav offers five configuration options:
- General: For setting up alerts and whether or not to scan for malware and phishing in your email messages (which is where the app found infected files on my Mac)
- Quarantine: For defining where you want to quarantine malicious files
- Exclude Files: To specify file types you don't want scanned
- Log Files: For setting whether or not you want log files stored and for viewing them
- Schedule: For defining when you want the latest virus definitions downloaded and when you want scheduled scans to take place
Once you've finished your setup, click the Start Scan button and go grab some milk and cookies. Scanning may take awhile, but when it's done you'll know for sure your Mac is clean.
When working with Leopard on laptops, make sure to consider the realities of older units with less space and/or small solid state drives. Leopard typically clocks in at over 8GB for a typical install. That leaves very little space on an old 20GB hard drive (vintage TiBook, anyone?, although all things are possible to those who believe) or a 16GB (or even 64GB) solid state drive for your personal data and media.
Going portable can mean going small. And Leopard, with its standard packages, is anything but that. So how are you supposed to deal with its masses of data, support files and bloated applications? Fortunately, you are not alone. The question of Leopard size, and Tiger before it, has been well explored with a number of excellent tools that will help you bring your overgrown installation under control.
Here are five ways you can slim down your Mac OS X install and make the most of the disk space on offer. There's lots of stuff in your install that you don't need, don't want, and will never use. A thoughtfully slimmed-down OS X discards those unneeded elements and leaves you more room for the items you do want.
Tossing your apps
Although Leopard ships with many fabulous applications, there are bound to be some that you simply don't want. If you don't use Chess or Photo Booth or Stickies for example, consider deleting them. That's not to say that you should delete applications you do use occasionally. Microsoft edge 79 0 309 155. You'll be kicking yourself hard if you toss System Profiler or Disk Utility and then have to use them at some point. Consider how you use your laptop and the tools you need; this will help guide your choices.
As a rule of thumb, when you have a desktop system at home or the office that you regularly network to in addition to your laptop, you can take more risks when deleting apps. Your backups are right there whenever you need them. Be aware, though, that most Applications involve more than an executable in your Applications folder.
Utilities like AppZapper and AppCleaner clean out an application's associated files and folders, as well as the app itself. Extra items may include Application Support folders, preferences files or panes, caches and more. App cleaners produces leaner Mac OS X installs by thoroughly deleting applications and support files; at the same time consider that a full uninstall may complicate reinstallation should you need to ever use those applications again.
AdvertisementRemove languages and PowerPC code
Localizations allow you to use your applications in many languages; you control your language choice through the System Preferences International settings pane. Your menus, buttons, and dialogs all adjust to the language of choice, be it English or Italian, Japanese or French. Unfortunately, all this language support takes up a lot of space on your disk. https://php-software.mystrikingly.com/blog/skyhook-itch-dotrandom-mac-os. There are tools out there that recover that space by removing language support that you won't use.
In addition to languages, another OS element that takes up space on your disk is Power PC support. Inside each of those universal binaries, there's PowerPC code that you will never use on an Intel machine. XSlimmer, Monolingual, and Trimmit allow you to remove both foreign language support and nonnative code at the same time. These tools greatly compress your Application folder, sometimes by as much as a gigabyte.
The cost to this choice is that it locks you in to a language. That may not be a huge deal if you work exclusively in English. Europeans who work with many languages may find themselves better served by skipping language extraction or carefully choosing which languages to delete from their system. Update: Language removal can also mess up Office 2008 updates and, I'm told, Adobe apps.
Weed through printer drivers, screen savers, and more
Large tracts of Mac OS X disk space are devoted to support files that, frankly, you'll never use. As a general purpose operating system, OS X offers many more choices than most people need or want. You can fight the bloat by cleaning out support areas that do not affect you.
For example, you may want to limit your printer drivers (/Library/Printers), Dashboard Widgets (/Library/Widgets), Screen Savers (/Library/Screen Savers), or synthetic voices (/System/Library/Speech/Voices). The Alex voice alone occupies over 600MB of disk space. If you won't need them, onboard dictionaries in /Library/Dictionaries represent another area of slimming opportunity; they weigh in at almost half a gigabyte.
Some smaller targets shouldn't be overlooked. At almost 100MB, /System/Library/Desktop Pictures has a lot of data you can probably live without. The Setup Assistant in /System/Library/CoreServices is about 70MB, and includes that cute Leopard video that plays when you first install the system. In /System/Library/Fonts, you'll find several Asian fonts that occupy almost 75MB of space. You may also want to thin out /System/Library/Compositions, the quartz composition folder, with its 50MB of QuickTime movies.
AdvertisementToss Up Mac Os Catalina
Some slim-down guides suggest you hunt down readme files and zap them from your drive, but I'm going to argue against that. Readme files are typically quite small and often they contain helpful information that you wish you'd kept around. So for very little benefit, you're losing potentially useful materials.
Don't install X11
If you won't be needing to use X11 on your laptop, try not to install it in the first place. Switch off its checkbox in your initial Leopard install. Should you need it later, it appears on your installation disk under the optional installs folder. You can also weed out many printers during this same customization stage of the install process.
Evaluate your disk
Toss Up Mac Os Update
A utility like Grand Perspective displays disk usage in graphical terms. Use it to track down large files that you're not using. Mousing over any block shows you exactly where each file is located. I use Grand Perspective to find many of the screen savers, dictionaries, and fonts that no longer live on my system.
As this screenshot shows, some files are enormous. See that big red blob? That's my laptop's hibernation files. And, like many other nonstandard Mac OS X laptops, mine does not properly sleep.
Toss Up Mac Os Download
If your laptop is a nonsleeper, you might consider tossing /var/vm/sleepimage; this file could possibly save a gigabyte of space. You might also end up reinstalling your system when the sleep issues are fixed, so only consider moving forward with this space reclamation if you really know what you're doing. Although a couple of forums suggested removing this file, I have not yet done so on my laptop. I am a coward.
That's the important lesson there. Although the worst situation you'll deal with when slimming Mac OS X is reinstalling the OS, doing so can eat up time that you don't actually have. It's especially annoying when you have to recustomize all your settings and re-install all your personal software.
Toss Up Mac Os X
In the end, move prudently before you make any critical change to your system. The qwerty collection mac os. I have removed many applications, monolingualed, tossed drivers and screensavers, and made many other adjustments as needed. You may want to Google for peoples' experiences if any particular strategy like the hibernation file one seems overly dubious.
